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Webster 1828 Edition


Heteroclitic

HETEROCLIT'IC


Definition 2024


heteroclitic

heteroclitic

English

Adjective

heteroclitic (comparative more heteroclitic, superlative most heteroclitic)

  1. (linguistics) In linguistics, particularly Indo-European Studies, signifying a stem which alternates between more than one form when declined for grammatical case. Examples of heteroclitic noun stems in Proto-Indo-European include *wod-r/n- "water" (nominoaccusative *wódr; genitive *udnés; locative *udén) and *yékw-r/n- "liver" (nominoaccusative *yékwr, genitive *ikwnés). In Proto-Indo-European, heteroclitic stems tend to be noun stems with grammatically inanimate gender.
  2. (microbiology) Pertaining to antibodies that react to a wide variety of antigens.
    • 2011, Eric J. Toone, Advances in Enzymology and Related Areas of Molecular Biology (page 300)
      [] a heteroclitic response was never observed after the immunization with the deamidated peptide []

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Translations

Noun

heteroclitic (plural heteroclitics)

  1. A heteroclitic noun.

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